Kadair v. Hampton

146 So. 3d 694, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1171, 2014 WL 3366897, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1732
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 10, 2014
DocketNo. 2013 CA 1171
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 146 So. 3d 694 (Kadair v. Hampton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kadair v. Hampton, 146 So. 3d 694, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1171, 2014 WL 3366897, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1732 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

WHIPPLE, C.J.

Lin this property dispute, defendants, Magnolia Ridge Properties, LLC and Raymond W. Banker, Jr., appeal from a judgment of the trial court rendered in favor of plaintiffs, Paul A. Kadair, Sr. and Melanie R. Kadair. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and vacate in part.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Paul Kadair purchased Tract H of Creekround subdivision in West Feliciana Parish on April 25,1974. Kadair then met Herman Endlekofer, who owned Tracts W and X, at a Creekround subdivision meeting. Endlekofer, who lived in Baton Rouge, asked Kadair to maintain his fence on the north line of his property and a road that went through his property, since Kadair lived nearby in Creekround. Ka-dair agreed, and in exchange, Endlekofer allowed him to use the property as he wished. By act of cash sale dated March [697]*6979, 1992, Paul and Melanie Kadair eventually purchased Tracts W and X from Endle-kofer.

By act of cash sale dated December 3, 2009, Magnolia Ridge Properties, LLC, (“Magnolia Ridge”) represented by Raymond W. Banker, Jr., purchased two parcels of land from Coastal Tie & Timber Company, Inc., represented by Steven K. Jones. These parcels were adjacent to Tracts W and X (owned by the Kadairs) with the first parcel described as Tract 2-C, containing 223.59 acres of land, and the second parcel described as Tract 2-B-2, containing 111.795 acres of land.

Thomas J. Hampton, an original developer of Creekround, and his wife, Janelle Bramlett Hampton, owned a “Reserved” 1.661 acre parcel of land bounded on the north and west by Tract 2-B-2 (owned by Magnolia Ridge) and on the south and east by Tract W (owned by the Kadairs) (hereinafter the “Reserved Tract”).

|3On January 11, 2011, the Kadairs filed a “Boundary Action Petition” naming the contiguous property owners, Thomas and Janelle Hampton, Magnolia Ridge, and Banker, as defendants therein. Through their original and supplemental petitions,1 the Kadairs contended that they possessed Tracts W and X, “together with such additional property as has been possessed by petitioners and their ancestors in title for more than 30 years.” (Emphasis added.) The Kadairs alleged that they had possessed the claimed additional property for themselves, and prior to that, precariously for Endlekofer, for “many decades.”2 The Kadairs described the claimed “additional property” as property-somewhat northerly of the Kadairs’ Tract W, but enclosed by and south of a barbed wire fence that traversed across the Reserved Tract, owned by the Hamptons, and on into Tract 2-B-2, owned by Magnolia Properties. The property south of the barbed wire fence line in the Reserved Tract was described as being an “irregular arc” believed to measure 399.85 feet, with the radius of the arc to be approximately 250 feet, and the portion of property south of the fence line in Tract 2-B-2 is a 1.62 acre area referred to herein as the “disputed property.” The Kadairs specifically alleged that they, together with their ancestors in title had possessed the disputed property south of the fence line “as owners together up to and across the section lines, all for over 30 years continuously, uninterrupted, and peaceable [sic] except for a confrontation with Walter Glenn Soileau, believed to be a trespasser, who ultimately withdrew from the contentious acts and threats of future acts until recently [when] [Banker and Magnolia Ridge] and Thomas and Janelle Hampton disturbed [the Ka-dairs’] possession.” The Kadairs alleged that 14no one besides themselves had possessed the disputed property south of the fence line, except with the express permission of Paul Kadair, and then only for limited purposes.

The Kadairs specifically contended that within the perimeter of the disputed property, they exercised acts of possession, including cutting their own fire wood as well as selling timber up to the fenced boundaries, moving freely over the entire tract, walking, building roads, maintaining drainage, planting trees and plants, taking guests, engaging in leisurely activities, tak[698]*698ing photographs, hunting, engaging in recreation, relaxing, camping, riding horses, installing and maintaining power lines, riding dune buggies, and riding four wheelers.

The Kadairs further alleged that Tract W contained a purported servitude, but had no designated dominant estate and was therefore deficient for lack of form and substance. Thus, the Kadairs alleged the purported servitude should be adjudged to have no legal effect and declared invalid as lacking the requisite elements of a servitude. With reference to the servitude, the Kadairs contended that the fence along the northern boundary of the Ka-dairs’ Tract W had been placed so that neither Magnolia Ridge, nor its ancestors in title, had crossed Tract W ever since the barbed wire fence was erected, although they had traveled across the Reserved Tract with the Kadairs’ express permission. Accordingly, the Kadairs prayed that: (1) the deficient servitude be declared invalid and adjudged to have no legal effect; and (2) that the boundaries between the properties be fixed in accordance with the law and evidence.

The developers of Creekround subdivision retained Brown and Butler to prepare the initial survey plat in 1972 when they subdivided the property. The servitude and two of the parcels of immovable property involved in this proceeding are depicted in the following excerpt from the final plat for Creekround subdivision dated May 12, 1972, and revised on January 18, 1973:

[[Image here]]

Defendants filed an answer to the Ka-dairs’ petition to fix or set the boundary: (1) denying that the Kadairs established requisite title to the defendants’ property by acquisitive prescription of thirty years, as required by law; and (2) asking the trial court to recognize as the legal boundary between the two properties the titled boundaries of the parties’ respective tracts according to the maps of survey by which the various tracts were acquired.

[699]*699Defendants subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment, contending that the Kadairs could not show that they have possessed the disputed property for thirty years as required under LSA-C.C. art. 794, and that the court accordingly was obligated to look to the titles of the parties to establish their common boundaries.3 Thus, the defendants sought summary judgment fixing the boundary between these parties at the section line between Section 88 and Section 70, T1S, | ñR4W as the record title boundary between these two parties. The trial court denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.4

The Kadairs thereafter filed a motion in limine, seeking an order prohibiting the defendants from introducing any witnesses, evidence, or exhibits concerning any acts of possession on behalf of any of the defendants. The Kadairs contended that in their answer, the defendants asserted title unto themselves “in this pos-sessory action,” and had effectively converted the present action to a petitory action, thus judicially confessing the possession of the Kadairs herein.5 The trial court denied the Kadairs’ motion in limine, stating “this is a possessory action” that has “not been converted to a petitory action by either party.”

Trial of this matter was held on January 8 and 9, 2013, after which the trial court took the matter under advisement. On February 15, 2013, the trial court issued written reasons for judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
146 So. 3d 694, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1171, 2014 WL 3366897, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kadair-v-hampton-lactapp-2014.